Welcome to the 160th Carnival of Debt Reduction. This particular collection of posts related to debt reduction is dedicated to $700 billion bailout plan passed by the US government. The dedication isn’t because the bill is a great piece of government action, because in reality it is an example of bill bloat, earmarks, and the government’s willingness to go into debt for us while taking more power away from us. I say to heck with the bailout, let’s focus on being responsible for ourselves and use these posts to help bail ourselves out. In these rocky financial times it is [...]
Read MoreOctober 2008
Here is the latest installment of my monthly expenses. Below are the results from September: $830.00 - Mortgage $643.00 - Daycare $464.09 - Groceries $330.00 – Van Payment $194.16 – Gas $136.62 – Electricity $135.79 – Medical Bills $125.00 – Student Loan $115.75 – Phone & Internet $113.59 – Misc Household $77.15 - Eating Out $55.00 - Tennis $42.00 - Haircuts $35.00 - Babysitting $30.63 – Oil Change $26.40 - Kid’s stuff $15.00 – Donations $1.50 – Video rental For a total of $3,370.68 Considering that our last two months totaled $3875.84 and $4170.34, I’d say we’re finally seeing some improvement. Some of you will remember [...]
Read MoreI thought this was so well thought out and written that it deserves a mention. ING Direct put out a We, The Savers statement that clearly identifies how we can be responsible for ourselves during this rough economic stretch. I appreciate the sentiment, plus ING is my bank for both checkings and savings and I love their services. Here is the list : We will spend less than we earn. We will use our home as a savings account. We will take care of our money. We will defend our credit worthiness. We will ignore unsolicited credit card marketing. We [...]
Read MoreI know this is a personal finance site and my role is mainly to describe my journey out of debt, but I can’t let the passing of a certain Hollywood legend happen without commenting. I can’t think of a cooler guy than Paul Newman. Jack Nicholson might be closer to the standard definition of cool, but when you delve a little deeper Paul Newman has him beat by a mile. Handsome Hollywood Superstar, Race Car Driver, & Philanthropist. It’s possible I’m a little biased because “Cool Hand Luke” & “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” are two of my all-time [...]
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